Trump election case Georgia DA Fani Willis disqualified but indictment remains

A Georgia Court of Appeals Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis was removed Thursday from overseeing the president-elect’s criminal election interference trial. Donald Trump And other defendants.

But the appeals court left the indictment against defendants charged with crimes related to their efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden.

The decision overturns a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s ruling that allowed Willis to remain in the case despite arguments by Trump’s lawyers that she should be dismissed because of the inappropriateness of her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor she chose to lead the case. issue.

In its decision, the Court of Appeal said Judge Scott McAfee’s remedy – which allowed Willis to remain in the case if Wade withdrew from handling it – was inappropriate.

“After careful consideration of the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred in failing to exclude DA Willis and her office,” the appeals court said.

“The remedy the trial court formulated to prevent the continuing appearance of wrongdoing did nothing to address the appearance of wrongdoing that sometimes existed when Prosecutor Willis exercised her broad pretrial discretion about whom to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the court said. .

“Although we recognize that the appearance of wrongdoing generally is not sufficient to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is imposed and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the fairness of these proceedings.”

But the appeals court also wrote: “But we affirm the denial of appellants’ motion to dismiss the indictment.”

The Georgia case is one of two criminal cases still pending against Trump.

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